Putin Warns Trump Not to Resume His Aggression Against Iran

30 April 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

Alexander Mercouris, who is perhaps the world’s leading analyst of international relations, and who was born into a Greek diplomatic family and is especially skilled at interpreting the meanings behind official read-outs of communications between heads-of-state, and other diplomatic communications, reported on April 30th that on April 29th, a historic phone-conversation took place between America’s President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, in which Putin diplomatically warned the U.S.President that if Trump’s forces will yet again invade Iran, then not only Iran but also Russia will respond to that, on Iran’s side. Here is the official Russian read-out of that conversation. The conversation occurred right after Iran’s Foreign Minister had met privately in Saint Petersburg with President Putin. Following here will be Mercouris’s analysis, not only of that read-out but of the context in which it occurred, its deeper meanings, its place in history:

00:01 [Alex Christoforou] Okay, we are live with Alexander [Mercouris] [and his commentary] occurs in London. If you hear some some work in the background

00:09

there [Mercouris:] They’re doing something here at uh at these apartments that i’m staying at,

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so don’t mind the the uh the noise anyway. [Christoforou:] Alexander, how’re you doing? [Mercouris:] i’m doing well I’m

00:19

very delighted to be here again doing a live stream with the community um lots going on or

00:26

alternatively you could say that everything is going exactly as it was before and it’s remarkable

00:32

how little has changed in some ways because this is also true so a lot of activity but perhaps

00:39

not a huge amount of action but that’s something we do need to perhaps um unpeel a little, because

00:47

there is considerable confusion and muddle about things in the international media at the moment

00:54

and I think an awful lot of misunderstandings about events recent events. All right, so uh before we

01:01

get started, a quick hello to everyone that’s watching us on rumble and on odyssey and on youtube

01:08

and our Duran community on locals the duran.locals.com — how’s everyone doing on locals,

01:16

great to have you with us on this chat and uh shout out to our moderators Alexander

01:24

one sec i see Harry Zariel is moderating in the youtube

01:32

chat so thank you for for helping us out on yet and uh Alexander where should we uh where should we

01:41

get going by the way like this video guys or like this live stream subscribe to this channel and uh if

01:47

you’re watching this on a mobile device you can you can hype it you get three hypes three hypes a week

01:53

um i’m not sure what the hypes do i think for the Duran channels the hypes don’t do anything just like

01:58

the likes and the subscribes don’t really do anything for the Duran network but you know youtube has it

02:03

there for us anyway yeah um where should where should we there there there are two events which

02:12

have taken place over the last um 48 or so hours and if you actually take a step back and think about

02:20

them carefully each well actually there’s three events each of which is important each in its own

02:26

way each one misunderstood in my opinion the first is that it is now looking increasingly likely as if

02:37

the us has reached its limit in terms of the war with Iran Trump is now talking about an indefinite

02:47

blockade of course the blockade that exists at the moment is hardly working and um you could you could

02:58

say that this is a final abandonment by the U.S. of some of its grand strategies the the plans the projects

03:09

that were discussed with Netanyahu back in February and which led to the attack on Iran

03:17

on the 28th of February. Now, if this is a correct assessment and for various reasons i think it is,

03:24

then this is a very important event, it’s a big moment, it’s a moment when the neocons drove the United

03:32

States into a war and that will failed almost immediately. Usually neocon wars start successful

03:42

and then go wrong; this one it seems has been different the second which I know we’re going

03:49

to get an awful lot of discussion about is the conversation which Putin and Trump had with each

03:56

other yesterday there’s a number of things to be said about this, and I want to start with those

04:02

before we start getting questions. The first is that the Russians initiated this call

04:08

and the Russians initiated this call directly after a meeting between Putin and [Iran’s Foreign Minister] Araghchi

04:15

in St. Petersburg, and the main topic of discussion according to Ushakov was the situation in the Persian

04:25

Gulf the conflict between the United States and Iran, and it was a call which the Russians initiated

04:36

in order to give the Americans a warning —they did discuss Ukraine but they didn’t say very

04:44

much about it but we’ll come to that I’m sure there’ll be lots of questions and the last event which

04:52

i also think is important is

04:54

is the decision of the UAE to quit OPEC.

04:57

And I’ve expressed certain opinions about this,

05:00

which have been controversial with some people.

05:04

I’m not saying that the UAE is in a financial crisis,

05:09

but it is, I’m sure, under a great deal of financial stress.

05:14

And I think other Gulf states are.

05:17

And I think we will be seeing more manifestations of this

05:20

in the next few weeks and months.

05:22

There’s all sorts of other interesting things going on in the background.

05:26

There’s Keir Starmer, if you really want to waste time with that psychodrama

05:31

that’s been endlessly going on in London.

05:34

There’s what’s happening with Mertz in Germany,

05:37

which is in some ways more important and more interesting.

05:41

And we can talk about all of those topics.

05:44

All right. What was Putin’s warning to Trump?

05:48

What was his warning?

05:49

Well, very straightforwardly: don’t restart the war against Iran again.

05:54

You’ve stopped. You’re going to stick to that.

05:56

You should actually rethink your business about a blockade.

06:00

But under no circumstances make any more attacks on Iran.

06:05

If you read Ushakov’s statement, it is there.

06:07

Or else what?

06:09

Well, we don’t know.

06:10

But the point was that he had a meeting with Araghchi.

06:13

He had Kostyakov, his intelligence chief, with him.

06:19

There’s been a huge amount of speculation, discussion

06:23

about the Russians providing military assistance to Iran.

06:27

I suspect the warning is that Russia has Iran’s back

06:32

and will continue to supply and support Iran through this crisis.

06:37

And if the United States, it escalates the crisis again,

06:43

then it is in for a very, very, very long duration war,

06:48

which it can’t win.

06:49

All right.

06:51

Are my mic levels good now?

06:53

I just fixed them.

06:54

Yeah.

06:55

Let me know in the chat if my mic levels are better.

07:04

Anyway, I think the mic levels have been sorted.

07:07

No?

07:10

Too hot.

07:11

Just lowered it.

07:13

Yeah.

07:15

One sec.

07:20

How about now?

07:24

Now it should be better.

07:29

Let me lower it a bit more.

07:33

One sec, Alexander.

07:38

Now it might be too low.

07:41

Is it all right, everyone?

07:47

Okay.

07:47

Yeah.

07:48

All right.

07:49

Alexander, can you say something?

07:50

Yes, I can say something if you want me to read out.

07:54

How’s Alexander?

07:56

How’s Alexander?

07:56

Okay.

07:56

Alexander is good.

07:58

Yeah.

07:58

Exactly.

07:59

Okay.

08:00

All right.

08:00

Sorry about that.

08:01

Everything got sorted out.

08:03

Okay.

08:05

We have anything else to talk about with the Trump-Putin phone call?

08:09

Well, I think we’ll read out.

08:11

I think the stuff about Ukraine was pretty much a nothing burger.

08:15

It was an absolute nothing burger.

08:17

I mean, Putin’s floundering on Ukraine, isn’t he?

08:21

He’s floundering on Ukraine.

08:22

I don’t think he’s floundering.

08:33

But why is he asking for Trump’s permission or Trump’s blessing for some sort of a ceasefire

08:41

on May 9th or something like that?

08:43

I mean, it came off as if he was asking for Trump to sign off on a May 9th ceasefire.

08:50

And then before you give your opinion, and then the whole nonsense about how they both

08:57

agree that Zelensky is the obstacle.

09:00

I mean, that’s just ridiculous.

09:01

Well, it is ridiculous.

09:02

Where Ushakov says that Putin and Trump both agree that the obstacle to peace is Zelensky.

09:06

I mean, come on.

09:08

Yeah, OK.

09:09

Are you telling me that Trump can’t exert any leverage on Zelensky if he wants to?

09:15

Well, let’s first of all start with the warning.

09:20

And this is the warning he gave.

09:22

He said, the President of Russia pointed out that if the United States and Israel resume military

09:28

action, this will inevitably lead to extremely adverse consequences, not only for Iran and for

09:36

its neighbors, but for the entire international community.

09:40

A ground operation on Iranian territory would be particularly unacceptable and dangerous.

09:47

And that’s said straightforwardly to Trump by the country that is backing Iran.

09:52

So I think that that is a very clear warning: under no circumstances

09:57

do either of these things [unless you want war with Russia too]. Now, Trump then veered off onto the topic of Ukraine as he always does,

10:05

he said again that he talked about a ceasefire, he said that he was very happy about the ceasefire

10:11

that Putin announced for the Easter truce Putin said well last year I suggested a truce

10:19

for the victory day celebrations. Trump went came back and said what a good idea that would be

10:24

both parties know, everybody knows, that there are not going to be any ceasefires on the Christmas

10:32

or the Easter Day celebrations but what Putin also said and this was about Ukraine, Russia

10:42

um continues that it will achieve the objectives of the special military operation no matter what.

10:50

And that was what he said, yeah but uh the the whole trying to put it on Zelensky the whole

10:58

obstacle I mean isn’t that I mean okay okay whatever, I don’t really see the

11:04

importance of this. I mean it it it basically says look you we made certain agreements in Anchorage,

11:13

Zelensky hasn’t agreed to them, you haven’t seen them through, there’s no point therefore in continuing

11:20

further negotiations. That’s all it means. Okay, uh should we should we move on to something else then

11:29

uh we could if we could get questions should we go i mean you wanted to say something about uh OPEC

11:36

oh yeah, I mean again I think that people are not talking about this business with Qatar

11:44

um properly yes there have been tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar

11:52

there have been many times with sorry not Qatar sorry the UAE and Saudi Arabia this has happened,

11:57

on many previous occasions there is nothing new or unusual in this. The fact is that the UAE has decided

12:07

to pull out of OPEC at a time when the Strait of Hormuz is closed, these two events are clearly connected

12:17

to each other and they are obviously the one is obviously the explanation of the other and it points to

12:29

financial stress within the UAE of which there is also other evidence. Financial stress does not equal

12:39

a financial crisis I’m not saying that the UAE is about to go bankrupt or anything like

12:47

that, what i am simply saying is that at the moment it is under financial stress and it is having to

12:54

take steps in order to prevent the financial crisis from developing. Okay, let’s uh let’s get to some

13:05

questions yeah uh haruko thank you for the five membership gifts yeah mr jabawak if Chinese defends its

13:16

people abroad the EU will say they are vindicated about their claims about Putin wanting to rebuild

13:22

the Soviet Union yes they will say that, I mean that’s inevitable but um at the present time I don’t

13:31

think the Russians very much care because the Russians have already made it very clear what they

13:35

think about the Europeans, um they’ve all said that the Europeans are behaving as if they’re already at war

13:41

with Russia, blap zoop. What do we know about the meeting between Araghchii and Putin? Also tankers trackers

13:52

say most of the old tankers were turned back in the Indian ocean well um at this present moment in

13:59

time what we know about the meeting between Araghchi and Putin, is that apart from giving Araghchi verbal support?

14:09

the chief of Russian military intelligence, sat in on that meeting, that’s admiral Kostyukov who is the

14:16

head of the organization that’s called in the West the GRU. Now, he would have been there for a purpose

14:25

and that’s clearly to discuss military cooperation there is no other reason to have someone like that

14:31

present in on a conversation at that time. D.C. Karayanis, thank you for that super sticker adrian petralu

14:41

gifted five uh memberships sir musgame says unusual travel plans for a potus during midterms

14:47

chatter coming from

14:49

Attica region end of June or July trump will land in Tehran

14:54

will you land in Tehran um I, I hardly think so i’m from Nikos i loved Alex’s frustration about

15:05

BRICS after king Charles’s speech I hope you can see the West’s unity that BRICS doesn’t have.

15:11

BRICS is a failure in truth Lula is 100 years old Modi betrayed BRICS

15:17

Khamenei is pushing up daisies, Maduro is looking for the soap, Putin bet it all on Trump and lost,

15:23

and Xi doing the backstroke near Taiwan. I don’t agree any of any of that. I mean first of all if

15:29

we’re talking about Taiwan it seems to me that here it is the Chinese who have the initiative.

15:35

As with Charles the third speech, that was an appalling speech and it is more symptomatic

15:42

of the crisis now that is developing in Britain as the British sense that the ground is

15:49

breaking underneath them because for the first time since the Second World War, their alliance

15:56

with the United States is facing question marks which is something that they are extremely nervous

16:01

about so they sent the King to congress and the King made the speech that he did but well as far

16:12

as I could see, what he did was actually it highlighted the differences at the end of the day

16:18

between the Americans and the British, at this time rather than paper them over. Now, as to the BRICS,

16:24

themselves to repeat the point I’ve made many times the key alliances the one between Russia and China,

16:31

that seems to be working well. What’s up with Modi and India though, well I think the Indians

16:38

have wrapped up in imports of Russian oil and they’re buying more S-400s from Russia

16:44

that iIdon’t think that this is uh India leaving or quitting the BRICS or anything like that. ri

16:52

BRICS is not a military alliance I’ve said this many times, it is a great grouping of countries that agree

17:00

with each other on certain things. At the moment the priority is to get these payment systems up and

17:07

running and apparently there is going to be some action on this this summer but as I said, it’s not

17:15

a military alliance, they’ve never sought to have absolute agreement with each other on all sorts of

17:22

things, on everything rather the Chinese and the Russians however are de facto allies and you can see

17:31

how that alliance is working. Okay, can I just say it does puzzle me it really does puzzle me

17:37

a little that people are talking in this way at precisely the moment when even the Chancellor of

17:45

Germany is talking about the United States having experienced a humiliation yet people are talking about

17:57

BRICS about the failure of BRICS, the unity of the western alliance.

18:05

…

——

MY COMMENT:

This is in line with what I had headlined on April 22nd: “Trump has been bluffing all along about destroying Iran — Iran has now won.” I consider likely that Putin phoned Trump on April 29th in order to inform him that if Iran becomes nuked, then Russia will respond nuclearly. America, with its aim since 1991 being to expand its NATO anti-Russian military alliance so as to get within five minutes of Moscow and so to trap and engulf Russia too, was responded-to by Russia on 24 February 2022, and, now, the U.S. Government has been also informed that if America continues to disrespect and ignore Russia’s national-security necessities, then Russia will respond accordingly, not merely wait to be invaded by the global aggressor-nation and its colonies.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.